Arthur and the Pendragons
by kelene
Summary: Merlin band au! A snippet in the life of Arthur and the Pendragons. Arthur is the charismatic front-man/lead singer and Merlin is his long-suffering best friend/lyricist/guitarist who writes songs that make Arthur *sparkle*.


**Title: **Arthur and the Pendragons

**Warnings/Spoilers:** Um. Not really, nothing too traumatising in here. A sappy ending, perhaps.

**Disclaimer:** If I owned these people I would be far too busy hanging with them to be here. Trust me.

**Author's notes: **I apologise for the seriously unoriginal band name. Also, for the entire concept of this fic. I don't even know what I was thinking; I only wish I was on the good crack. Was part of a longer piece, but that sort of died a horrible death. Not beta'd, which is probably obvious; concrit welcome!

**Summary:** Merlin band au! A snippet in the life of _Arthur and the Pendragons_. Arthur is the charismatic front-man/lead singer and Merlin is his long-suffering best friend/lyricist/guitarist who writes songs that make Arthur *sparkle*.

**Word count: **1,500 ish

* * *

His window blind was open halfway to let in some light as the rest of the plane slept. It was a long flight, and it was only half over. At least they were flying home this time. Merlin leaned his head against the head rest and stared out into the blinding whiteness. He was starting to really hate plane rides. And airports, and never knowing exactly where he was and _when _he was when he woke up in the morning. It was tiring; always moving around and never staying in one place long enough to truly get some rest. He wondered, not for the first time, why he had chosen this particular path in life.

"Hey." A voice whispered to his left, and he looked up to see the familiar figure standing in the aisle, blurry in the darkness. They had booked the tickets at the last minute and had ended up all sitting separately. Arthur leaned over the woman sleeping next to Merlin. "I knew you wouldn't be asleep. The guy next to me has disappeared, come sit with me. I'm bored." Demanding as always, but Merlin did not hesitate to be asked twice.

He shoved the magazines and bits of paper with lyrics scribbled over them into the seat back pocket and stood up. He woke the woman in his attempt to climb over her quietly and she gave an annoyed huff before twisting in her seat to get a better sleeping position. He could barely see where he was going, but Arthur grabbed his wrist and led him down the aisle toward where he was sitting. With one hand being held by Arthur, and the other cradling blankets from his own seat, Merlin could only just walk in a straight line in the movement of the plane. He could _feel _Arthur smirking at his clumsiness. It was a long way back to Arthur's seat – past two sets of bathrooms. By the time they reached the row, Merlin was half clinging onto Arthur, trying not to fall over, suddenly dizzy and tired.

"Here, sit down." Arthur gently nudged him into the window seat before sitting down beside him. "You want to sleep now?"

Merlin didn't bother to answer him. Simply curled up in his seat and brought up the blankets to cover the both of them. He heard Arthur laugh softly, and ignored it.

-

He woke up, however many hours later, to the sound of stifled giggling. In his sleep, he had drawn one of his blankets up over his face so that only his hair was uncovered. Now he pulled it down and peered blearily over the top. He ended up staring into the lens of a video camera. Morgana's video camera. She was holding it only inches away from his head, where it laid tucked into the crook of Arthur's neck. Morgana was grinning ear to ear with Gwen leaning against her shoulder, no doubt encouraging the madness.

"Jesus, Morgana!" Merlin jerked up his head, dislodging Arthur and waking him up.

"Mwergh?" Was all that Arthur could manage.

"Turn that thing off!" Merlin made a grab for it, but Morgana danced out of the way. "I swear, if this gets onto the internet, I will _kill_ you."

"Arthur would never let you, would you Arthur?" Morgana teased, but turned off the camera nonetheless. No reply from Arthur, who was not the most coherent in the morning. Merlin knew he would have to find that footage and get rid of it before the girls managed to get it onto Youtube. He didn't really need to worry about other crazy fan-girls when he had two of them in the band with him.

Merlin sat up straight and glanced around. The lights had been switched back on, and people were moving around, walking up and down the aisles.

"Where are we?"

"Should be landing in under an hour. They're bringing around breakfast now." Gwen answered. She and Morgana had somehow managed to trade seats with the passengers on Merlin and Arthur's left, and they all settled back as breakfast was bought around.

Despite finally being back in their home city after two straight months of touring, going home was not in the plans when they landed. Their last gig was going to be a small and intimate affair, back at the venue where they had played their first show after being signed. Merlin was certain that it was there that the rest of the world saw their potential. Merlin had seen it all along, of course; he was the one who had practically stalked Gaius across various venues and gigs to hand him a demo CD.

Merlin and Arthur had gone to the same school, together with Gwen and Morgana. They hadn't been friends. In fact, they had hated each other from the moment they had met. Arthur could be an arrogant bastard when he wanted to be, and Merlin hadn't known any better than to provoke him. They had both ended up in the Headmaster's office with black eyes, having destroyed some bookshelves in the library after a particularly violent altercation. After that, they had been made to sit together in detention twice a week for a month in the hope that they would get used to each other, talk through their problems perhaps. Merlin supposed that the school hadn't been expecting them to become best friends over night and for the two of them to realise that they shared a love for music. Enough to start a band, of all things. The Headmaster probably despaired, but at least Merlin and Arthur were no longer destroying school property on a regular basis.

The band had moved pretty fast after that. Merlin had recruited Gwen for the drums who had in turn brought along Morgana, who played a mean bass. Arthur had not been too thrilled about that. Merlin didn't really understand the relationship Arthur and Morgana had, being adopted siblings, but he knew that it was awkward and Arthur never really liked to talk about it.

The band had spent eight weeks in the summer between their lower and upper sixth years writing a CD-full of songs, recording them with shoddy quality squeezed together in Gwen's basement. Arthur had a great voice, which came through despite the grainy recording. And despite all his occasional prancing, he tried his best to do justice to Merlin's lyrics, which was more than Merlin had ever hoped for. What Arthur really had going for him, though, was his presence. When they did manage to get a stage to perform, whether at an unknown pub in the middle of nowhere playing to a bunch of bored indie kids, or at a friend's party, Arthur lit up the stage like nobody's business. It was _hard_ not to look at him and ignore all other distraction when he was singing into a microphone. Somehow, Arthur's natural born arrogance translated into confidence and charisma on stage, and even Merlin found it difficult not to watch him.

Merlin had known that they could make it big. So he'd tracked down their local talent spotter, and bugged him until he took their demo and promised to make an appearance at their next show. And then it was just a whirlwind.

Gaius was this ancient permanent fixture on the local music scene who could pull a lot of weight with the higher ups, and when he decided that Merlin's band (Merlin's, despite what Arthur claims, the bastard) was going to be the next big thing, things finally started happening. Soon, they were getting calls for more gigs, bigger gigs. Kids turned up at their shows and knew all the words to their songs, and hung around afterward to talk to them and grab autographs. And people were wearing t-shirts with their names printed on them, which Merlin had found slightly ridiculous, and still did after two years of being in the limelight.

Today marked the end of their summer tour , and they were all exited. Merlin looked forward to being on a small stage once again. It was always more fun, actually being able to see the people who came to see _them._ He knew that the others loved it too, being so close to the audience. And Arthur, well, Arthur loved it because he could actually see the girls fainting from being so close to the one and only _Arthur_ _Pendragon._

The last gig also meant that by the end of the night, he would be back in his own bed, in his own house for the first time in two months. Although that thought was more than welcome, Merlin knew that he would miss this. Maybe not the airports and the endless queues, but quiet moments like this with his band, when they were all together, looking forward to performing. It wasn't the end though, there would be more tours, more being together as a band. And Merlin knew that _this _was exactly why he had decided on this route in life. He would choose it all over again, just for moments like these.

* * *

The End?


End file.
